Free Library Symposium on Community Based Librarianship

I'm in Philly today for this (free) Free Library/IMLS seminar. Lots of interesting sessions, ranging from accessing foundation resources and grant writing to partnering with community organizations. The keynote is being given by author James Vollbracht, who has written and spoken extensively about creating community at home and work, character development in children. He'll speak about how libraries can help draw a "Community Circle around our youth". UPDATE: Vollbracht was unable to get to Philly, so the new keynote is Jim Conway, senior trainer at the Search Institute.

After the keynote, there will a number of sessions- I haven't decided yet which one to attend- so if you have a favorite, let me know and I'll go to that one and report back through the blog:

• Steps to writing a winning grant proposal
  
• How the Free Library's collaboration with Project H.O.M.E. has benefited the library and its homeless community
  
• Community Librarianship around the world
  
• Multicultural Community Libraries
  
• Growing author events with community support

While I'm interested in the Project H.O.M.E presentation because I know various people who have worked for the organization, I'll probably attend the more general Multicultural Community Libraries session, absent any requests, because this is an urban librarians' roundtable discussion that should be fairly wide-ranging.

More soon.